Editors' book-shelf;

Page 1

THE EDITORS
BODK
SHELF
Pierre S. du Pont and the Making of
the Modern Corporation,
by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. and
Stephen Salsbury.
Harper & Row, 1971,722 pages, $17.go.
The value of this thoroughly
documented book lies in the light it
casts on the methods of operation
and decision making of a premier
builder of the modern corporation,
Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1953).
Much of it concerns his role in the
family explosives and chemical
company, and the authors offer
considerably more financial detail
on the Du Pont Powder Company than
most of us want to know.
The special interest to Haskins &
Sells people here is in the chapters
on the early history of General
Motors, in which Pierre played a key
part as board chairman, finance
committee chairman and president.
To GM, then a recently organized
company born of many mergers, he
brought the organizational skill and
system that he had developed at the
Du Pont Company, and put it
on the road to greatness.
The problems of financing and
managing corporations in the
seventies are, of course, vastly
different from those of 1915, when
Pierre S. du Pont became GM chairman,
and of the years 1920-1923 when he
was GM president. But in the story of
his involvement with the management
of GM, as well as with Du Pont,
it is clearly shown that many
situations facing managers of all
kinds today are much like those that
faced Pierre back in the first
decades of the century—well
before the business schools and
management literature had dissected
them for study. Pierre S. du Pont,
the pioneer executive, learned his
lessons the hard way, pragmatically
and with his share of mistakes.
His training at MIT had been in
chemistry; he learned how to be a
business executive on the job.
By looking over his shoulder in
these pages we see a most unusual
person at work, one with a gift for
big organization leadership.
To quote the authors:
"Pierre's most significant role at
General Motors was, as it had been
at Du Pont, to act as a catalytic
agent. He was able, again by his
reason and quiet sensible ways, to
fashion a strong management team
from disparate elements: men from
Du Pont who knew the ways of modern
management but little about the
making and selling of automobiles;
divisional and staff executives who
understood their industry well but
were skeptical about outside control
and outside advice; and, finally,
representatives of the bankers and
J. P. Morgan and Company who had
always been less than enthusiastic
about their investment in
the automobile business . ..
"Above all, he was willing to listen to
and to work with other executives."
Third Pollution:
The National Problem of
Solid Waste Disposal,
by William E. Small.
Praeger, 1971,173 pages, $6.95.
Most Americans recognize that water
and air pollution are matters of
national concern. Fewer of us are
yet fully aware of the menace of the
third pollution, which is closely
linked to the first two—that of
the trash and junk that our
increasing population is spreading
around our limited living space.
We are now dumping more than five
pounds per person daily, and it
costs us an estimated $5 billion a
year to get rid of the stuff.
The author of this impartial,
well documented book served as a
professional staff member with the
U.S. Senate Committee on Public
Works that studied pollution
problems and proposals for government
programs to meet them. Relying
heavily on hearing testimony and
documents from authoritative sources,
he comes up with a wealth of hard
facts. They should impress the
socially concerned citizen, as home
owner, voter, businessman,
professional or holder
of public office.
We are in danger of being buried
under (or contaminated by) the
mounting heaps of trash, garbage and
junk accumulating around the places
where we live and work—unless we
take a broad scale "systems approach"
to controlling solid wastes. Much
of it (plastics, glass, metals) will
neither burn nor decompose. Many
cities have run out of accessible
places where they can dump or bury
debris in the old ways. Nor are they
permitted to dump near waterways or
burn in the open as freely as before.
Thought, planning and action are
needed at all levels, the author
maintains. For example, we must think
in terms of disassembling junked
cars and household appliances, then
recycling the materials. This should
be done both to reduce the junk piles
and to reduce the waste of our
natural resources. Industry should
investigate practical ways to
recover and reuse materials, and
government should help with
organization, policy setting, tax
incentives and public education.
Families should be prepared to play
their part by separating household
trash into reusable metals, paper,
glass and garbage.
Although the situation is serious,
it is not hopeless, Mr. Small writes.
The public is beginning to care and
new laws promoting sound waste
management are being adopted—
though too slowly. New technology
is in sight for waste collection,
sanitary incineration and reuse of
debris. But we all must be
reeducated to the pressing need for
a national solid waste management
program. The responsibility lies
with everyone, the author concludes,
because "we are the polluters
and the polluted." •